The Jews were kindly treated by Sixtus V. on the plea that they were "the family from whom Christ came," and he allowed them to practise many kinds of trades, and to have intercourse with Christians, and to build houses, libraries, and synagogues, but his mild laws were all repealed by Clement VIII. (Aldobrandini, 1592--1605), and under Clement XI. and Innocent XIII. all trade was forbidden them, except that in old-clothes, rags, and iron, "stracci feracci." To these Benedict XIV. (Lambertini) added trade in drapery, with which they are still largely occupied. Under Gregory XIII. (Buoncompagni, 1572--85) the Jews were forced to hear a sermon every week in the church, first of S. Benedetto alla Regola, then in S. Angelo in Peschiera, and every Sabbath police-agents were sent into the Ghetto to drive men, women, and children into the church with scourges, and to lash them while there if they appeared to be inattentive.
"Now was come about Holy Cross Day, and now must my lord preach his first sermon to the Jews: as it was of old cared for in the merciful bowels of the Church, that, so to speak, a crumb at least from her conspicuous table here in Rome, should be, though but once yearly, cast to the famishing dogs, undertrampled and bespitten upon beneath the feet of the guests; and a moving sight in truth this, of so many of the besotted, blind, restive, and ready-to-perish Hebrews! now maternally brought--nay (for He saith, 'Compel them to come in'), haled, as it were, by the head and hair, and against their obstinate hearts, to partake of the heavenly grace...."--_Diary by the Bishop's Secretary,_ 1600.
Though what the Jews really said, on thus being driven to church, was rather to this effect:--
"Groan all together now, whee-hee-hee! It's a-work, it's a-work, ah, woe is me! It began, when a herd of us, picked and placed, Were spurred through the Corso, stripped to the waist; Jew-brutes, with sweat and blood well spent To usher in worthily Christian Lent.
'It grew, when the hangman entered our bounds, Yelled, pricked us out to his church like hounds. It got to a pitch, when the hand indeed Which gutted my purse, would throttle my creed. And it overflows, when, to even the odd, Men I helped to their sins, help me to their God."